Your first home on the Westside: a practical guide.

By Sasha Mendez, Real Estate Agent, Antenna Realty

Most first-time buyers I meet have rented in Los Angeles for years and have watched prices long enough to feel behind. This is the guide I walk new clients through before we tour a single home.

It is not a checklist for every situation. It is the order I would do things in if I were buying a first place in Mid-City or on the Westside today, and the questions I would want answered before signing anything.

Start with your real monthly number.

A pre-approval tells you what a lender will allow. It does not tell you what you will be comfortable paying every month. Add property taxes, insurance, HOA dues if you are looking at condos, and a cushion for repairs. The true monthly payment calculator on this site is a good place to begin, and then we refine the number with your lender.

Many buyers find that their comfortable number sits below their approval. That is useful to learn early, because it changes which neighborhoods and which kinds of homes make sense.

Know what you are really buying.

With a condo or townhome, you are buying into a building and an association. Read the HOA budget, the reserve study and recent meeting minutes, and look for planned special assessments or repairs that keep getting postponed. With an older house, get the sewer line scoped, ask about permits for any converted garage or added room, and read the inspection report closely.

The best first home is the one you can afford to live in well, not the most you can borrow for.

If something in the documents worries you, it is fine to walk away. I would rather a client lose a home than inherit a problem nobody mentioned.

Writing your first offer.

When you find the right place, we look at recent sales nearby, how long the home has been listed and how much interest it is drawing. Then we decide on price, timing and which contingencies to keep. A strong first offer is clear and well prepared, and it is not always the highest one. If you are starting to think about buying, send me a note and we can sit down with your numbers.

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